5 Best IM Clients For Managing Multiple IM Accounts

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We all use IM services online and most of us use more than one. We tend to install messenger software for all the services we use (probably Yahoo, Gtalk, MSN, AOL etc.) on our computer and finally end up slowing it down. It is a well-known fact that Yahoo Messenger significantly slows down your computer.

In this post, I am going to write about software that will effectively help you manage your IM accounts instead of using Bloat ware that seriously affect your computer’s performance.

This is amazing software which helps you manage multiple IM accounts seamlessly. It doesn’t take up a lot of memory on your computer (15 MB when running in the background). Pidgin supports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Gtalk, GroupWise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Mkit, MySpace, QQ, SILC, Simple, Sametime, XMPP and Yahoo. It doesn’t include native support for Facebook, but it can be easily resolved with a plugin which I mentioned in my earlier post.

Trillian is another equally capable application for managing your IM accounts. It has a very good Web App and an app for Windows. They also have a version for Mac, iPhone and Blackberry. It includes native support for Facebook which Pidgin lacks.

This is another excellent app that does most of the functions PIDGIN and Trillian does. It also includes a potential mail checker and you can use it to check emails from those ID’s you don’t use often to prevent de-activation.

If you are not interested in installing ANY software at all, then, Meebo is the one for you. It’s an online IM client that supports almost every IM network that exists today. It’s much like Trillian’s Web client, but has more options to use all the IM accounts at the same time.

This is the best Mobile IM client there is. They’ve also got a decent web app to use with your computer and it’s worth checking out. This is a must have app for your mobile. Nimbuzz is another alternative for Mobile users.

Before I sign off, I have to warn you that many of these clients may not have features beyond IM like Video chat, etc. If you are looking for complete functionality, you might require the actual software.

I have been using DIGSBY. So far I’m really happy with this app. Though the only annoying thing is they keep updating this tool all the time and announcement posts every fortnight/avg. Still I would rate them 4/5